Various environmental concerns addressed

The organisation, Mining Affected Communities United in Action’s (Macua) Merafong Branch is trying to shed light on various environmental concerns in our area. The organisation’s chairperson, Mr Ngaka Pitlele, recently raised his concerns about the sinkholes in Khutsong with Sibanye-Stillwater. Through this engagement, Macua determined that the sinkholes were related to the maintenance of infrastructure and caused by municipal negligence. This means the municipality has failed to follow the guidelines for development on dolomite. The mine is attending to it as a matter of urgency and is requesting assistance from the Council of Geosciences. Pitlele also requested clarity on the cause of frequent tremors in Khutsong. Since the outflow of seepage from tailings is significant, he also asked for additional information on the impact of seepage from slimes dams in the Wonderfonteinspruit catchment area on stability. Sibanye Gold’s survey on seismic tremors showed that the ones in Khutsong could be caused by natural seismic events or blasting, or could be mining related. The relevant specialists would have to investigate the cause. Mining is well known to induce seismicity in the vicinity of the mining operation, but its effect decreases with distance from the mine. Such events, while disturbing to the public, are almost always on the lower end of the seismic scale and seldom lead to injury or structural damage. There is no known link between seismic events and dolomite instability. The mine concluded that slimes dams are wet facilities created by depositing wet slimes in layers. As these layers dry out, subsequent layers are created on top of each other until the design height is reached. They are designed and constructed under the supervision of an engineer, according to national standards, to ensure that failure does not take place. Containing the leaks is thus a vital issue in operating a slimes dam. Any leakage that does take place is always close to that structure and mines are required to contain it in that area. Such leaks are, therefore, seldom significant and certainly do not extend far beyond the slimes dam. Neither do they go near communal settlements and are, therefore, not the cause of any dolomite instability. Sibanye-Stillwater’s slimes dams are at least 15 km from Khutsong and pose no risk of dolomite instability to Khutsong residents. “We are currently waiting for the Council of Geosciences’s report to inform us of the 2008 Geotech report relating to sinkhole formation. Macua has since approached the mines to ask how they can assist the municipality to rehabilitate these sinkholes. He says people’s rights have been violated in terms of Section 24 of the Constitution. In conclusion, Pitlele said the current back-filling of sinkholes with mine wasted rocks was not a relevant activity and did not comply with the requirements of closing up a sinkhole. The Macua environmental subcommittee is still in the process of engaging with the municipality on the sinkhole issue.